One of the world’s most remote places, an uninhabited coral
atoll, is also one of its most polluted.

Henderson Island, a tiny landmass in the eastern South
Pacific, has been found by marine scientists to have the highest density of
anthropogenic debris recorded anywhere in the world, with 99.8% of the
pollution plastic.

The nearly 18 tonnes of plastic piling up on an island that
is otherwise mostly untouched by humans have been pointed to as evidence of the
catastrophic, “grotesque” extent of marine plastic pollution.

One of many hundreds of crabs that now make their homes out
of plastic debris washed up on Henderson Island in the Pitcairn island group.
This particular item is an Avon cosmetics jar. Photograph: Jennifer Lavers

Nearly 38m pieces of plastic were estimated to be on
Henderson by researchers from the University of Tasmania and the UK’s Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds, weighing a combined 17.6 tonnes.

The majority of the debris – approximately 68% – was not
even visible, with as many as 4,500 items per square metre buried to a depth of
10cm. About 13,000 new items were washing up daily.

Jennifer Lavers, of the University of Tasmania’s institute
for marine and antarctic studies, told the Guardian the sheer volume of plastic
pollution on Henderson had defied her expectations.

“I’ve travelled to some of the most far-flung islands in the
world and regardless of where I’ve gone, in what year, and in what area of the
ocean, the story is generally the same: the beaches are littered with evidence
of human activity ...

“However, my thought
was the remarkable remoteness of Henderson Island would have afforded it some
protection. I was totally wrong.

Lavers found hundreds of crabs living in rubbish such as
bottle caps and cosmetics jars, and has been told of one living inside a doll’s
head.

“From the looks on people’s faces, it was quite grotesque,”
she said. “That was how I felt about all these crabs – we are not providing
them a home, this is not a benefit to them.

The largest of the four islands of the Pitcairn Island
group, Henderson Island is a Unesco World Heritage Listed site and one of the
few atolls in the world whose ecology has been practically untouched by humans.

The island exhibits remarkable biological diversity given it
covers only 3,700 hectares, with 10 endemic species of plant and four land bird
species. Its isolation had, until recently, afforded it protection from most
human activities.

Lavers said her findings had proved to her nowhere was safe
from plastic pollution. “All corners of the globe are already being impacted.”

Like seabirds and turtles, remote islands serve as sentinels
for the health of the wider marine ecosystem, “acting like a sieve or a trap,
filtering out the ocean”, she said.

The state of Henderson – “the most polluted, most remote
island in the whole world” – was indicative of the extent of the problem, and
the “absolutely mind-boggling” rate at which plastic was being produced
globally.

The 17.6 tonnes of plastic on Henderson accounted for only
1.98 seconds’ worth of annual production, found the paper – co-written by
Lavers with Alexander Bond – published in Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences on Monday.

“Across the board, no country got a free pass on this – we
found bottles from Germany, containers from Canada, I think it was a fishing
crate from New Zealand. What that says is we all have a responsibility in this,
and we have to sit up and pay attention to that.”

The threat to biodiversity posed by plastic debris has come
under increased scrutiny as findings reveal the extent of the problem, with
millions of tonnes ending up in the ocean every year.

North West beach on Henderson Island looking pristine in a
Unesco image, but the remote atoll’s beaches are littered with tonnes of
plastic. Photograph: Ron Van Oers/Unesco

In February, scientists reported “extraordinary” levels of
toxic pollution in the Mariana trench, with plastic waste facilitating the
spread of industrial chemicals to one of the most remote and inaccessible
places on the planet.

At the world oceans summit in early March, Indonesia pledged
to put up to $1bn a year towards reducing plastic and other waste products
polluting its waters, setting a goal of a 70% reduction in marine waste within
eight years.

Laver said individuals and governments had a part to play in
reducing the amount of plastic polluting the world’s oceans, but the key was
urgency.

“For me, marine plastic pollution is the new climate change,
but I would like for us to not make the same mistakes. We’ve been arguing about
climate change, and whether it exists and what is changing, for the better part
of 40 years ...

“Let’s not wait for more science. Let’s not debate it. The
rate of plastic in our oceans is absolutely phenomenal, and we need to do
something now.”